Early blight or stress?

[SueCT]

Thank you, I am trying Flickr. These are the photos on Flickr. Hope it works.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/152340683@N05/363L26

[zipcode]

Even at work the original pictures don't show.
That I would say is not Early blight. Also not quite sure it's the aphids either, they don't normally cause yellowing at such low populations.
I'm inclined towards some vascular problem (like fusarium).

[My Foot Smells]

oddly enough, I cannot see the original pictures that I saw earlier on the same computer. I could pull up the flickr pics.

Was aphid infestation confirmed upon leaf examination?

I am curious as to why ppl are 100% sure this is not EB. Is it the location and EB is not prevelant in the NE? I am not very good at diagnosis (& usu. stay out of such threads), but learning.

From the pictures, I cannot see how one can R/O (rule out) EB? Sure there are many things that affect plant leaves that are symptomatically similar, but I do not see any tale-tell signs that this is indeed 100% aphid acquisition.

[SueCT]

One of the photos did show what I thought were aphids but apparently are the exoskeletons. I did not see a large infestation but the theory was there more nymphs that were not visible doing the damage, I think. Really hoping not Vericulum or Fusarium. Not all plants are effected, but about half seem to be. One worse than the others. I have no idea what is happening with the original photos, I can still see them, but it must be something with Google or Google photos and I don't have any control over it. All the photos are also on the Flickr link. Hoping for EB or aphids, I removed the effected leaves and sprayed with Daconil. If it comes back the only other thing I can think of to do is take a leaf to the local agricultural extension. Farmers get first dibs so this time of year it could take a while, but its an option.

[Father'sDaughter]

If you have a plant that gets so bad you end up pulling it, make a slice through the main stem and check for browning in the stem tissue. This will tell you if you're dealing with F or V. If you google either one you'll find plenty of pictures to use for comparison.

[RayR]

the original pics Sue posted are on Flickr and better yet you can download them at the original full resolution (3264x2448)
Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the bottom of the damaged leaves to confirm aphids and or how many there are. The bottom of the leaves is where they hang out do most of the damage.

I looked closely at the high res pictures and cannot see any lesion that resembles EB. EB forms a concentric circle pattern as the brown lesion grows in size.

I've had similar damage on some leaves this year, no clear EB symptoms or any other fungi. The only thing I've found was aphid nymphs on the bottom of the leaves which only could be revealed under a magnifier or with a closeup shot with the camera. I have not yet seen a single adult aphid this year other than one flyer.

[SueCT]

There is two pics of the under side of the leaves with the 3 white exoskeletons. Are you at least seeing those? Boy, I miss Photobucket. Wish the 400.00/yr was in the budget because I never had these kinds of problems with them.

[gorbelly]

To me, that doesn't look like EB. At first I thought it was drought stress, but in this pic


IMG_1761 by Susan Albetski, on Flickr

it looks like the yellowing is going up one branch, which is an indicator of a possible soilborne wilt or root problem.

[SueCT]

Thank you for posting that, Gorbelly. Hopefully anyone interested can see it. I believe it was more than one branch but there were entire branches that were not effected, as you can see on the left. If I see more on the same branch I might sacrifice that branch to see if I can see the browning inside, but leave the healthy branches. The problem is that I think that is the main stem involved.

[gorbelly]

Sue, to post images directly from flickr into tomatoville posts:

1) Go to the image you want to embed. Make sure your image is public. Settings are at the bottom of the page.


2) Click on the "share" icon at bottom right:


3) in the screen that pops up, select "BBCode", then choose the image size from the dropdown. Cut and paste the code into your tomatoville post.

[SueCT]

Thank you!

[SueCT]

Its official. Or at least as official as it is likely to ever get. Early Blight. That is the diagnosis of the Bacterial and Fungal disease specialist at the Cooperative Extension. I also brought him a leaf with little black eggs on it. He put it under a micsroscope and confirmed that they were eggs but did not know type of eggs. (He is not the insect specialist, who I think is the one they said is on vacation this week.) If anyone can identify them, please feel free. In the meantime, I will try an internet search.

[IMG]IMG_1771 by Susan Albetski, on Flickr[/IMG]

[AlittleSalt]

Sue, I wish I had seen this sooner - The little tiny black eggs are aphid eggs. We had them so bad on black eyed peas one year that I burned the plants. Here is an internet picture of when they really get bad.

[clkeiper]

that just looks like black aphids to me. spray them off with a strong spray of water and then soapy water but don't rinse it off. leave the soap on to kill the aphids. next up scout for lady bugs and move them to the plant that has aphids as a last resort spray with an insecticide. good luck. the diseases are awful this year for us. all of my outside tomatoes look just nasty. I will probably pull an entire row of pink tomatoes in the next week or two if they don't start looking better.

[SueCT]

Well, I already knew I had some aphids, so not a shock. It has not been a terrible infestation, so I will kill whatever I see and keep spraying for the early blight. If the aphids seem to be getting worse I will see about a soap spray. I keep hoping natural predators will kick in. I haven't seen any lady bugs, I saw more inside during the winter, lol. Do birds ever go after them? I do have those!